I'd like to see more dynamic events in zones. A bit of danger makes zones exciting - some of the L5-10 newbie areas in EverQuest had some L35 griffons and the like wandering around - that was somewhat extreme, but it did make the zones memorable.
Just having patrols in zones would make them a bit more dynamic - CoV has this to a very limited degree (Longbow patrols in Nerva & sometimes Mercy, Crab Spider patrols in St Martial, Ghost of Scrapyard's spawning causing miners to move around Sharkhead and the airborne Sky Raiders around Villa Requin there too, Toxic Tarantulas patrolling in Grandville and the airborne Mu patrols up around The Fab, etc), but we could do with more - as long as it didn't add too much lag. And zone invasions are good - like the Rikti ones - as long as they're not overdone.
i do think that, when they get in to zone, the enemy's are not spoiling everything for the lower levels.
it's never fun to begin COX, and suddenly find you self against a purple freak show, especially bad for players that just bought the game.
If they used the GM tech like they developed for the Rikti invasions, then there'd be no danger of meeting something that was impossible to defeat.
@Golden Girl
City of Heroes comics and artwork
I like this idea, how about some PPD squad cars and SWAT vans setting up roadblocks with their cars like in Mayhem Mishes? =D
/signed
Sounds cool, doo eeet! 
Yup love the idea. Especially when they use the techniques as they did for the Rikti invasions.
A quick idea:
. Panic! Running! screaming!
back in the early days when we still had the 5th column, I remember the takeover stage and the columns (no pun intended) of soldiers that would jog through atlas park causing my blaster to requrie a change of costume bottoms and a purple blur moved toward him.
I still remember seeing a high level hero stepping in an dtackling the problem and being very impressed indeed.
So, what I was thinking was, how to recapture that for other players, what exactly about that made it memorable and whats missing with zones as they stand ?
my thoughts:
zones as they stand are essentially safe. I know that at 8th level I can run through atlas park without having to worry. My blaster entered founders falls at 32nd level and got creamed instantly by a sniper... (git!), now, at 47 he can stroll through. However, i know that Eden etc are still dangerous nad I get a thrill when I make a foray in there.
What made the event memorable?
Well, I think it was acombination of "AAAAaaaaaaaah" followed by "[censored]" followed by "ooooh, cool".
What were purples doing in Ap where I was safe? There was no warning. just another day at the office and suddenly everyone was running in fear.
enough foundation and flavour methinks. the suggestion:
A hacker. yes, a nerd/geek/otaku hacker. no-one knows who he is or where he's operating from or what he wants even but they do knwo he's causing a lot of trouble. his favourite sport seems to be shutting down security posts allowing free passage for creatures from one zone to another.
Skulls and hellions from Perez can invade AP or Galaxy City. Kings row CoT cna have a quick hunt in AP, Eden unmentionables can wander into Founders falls, etc.
Of course, only those closest to the gate will go through , emaning that the biggest and nastiest wont be causing trouble.
A timer could be put on the security measures so that they come back up and cut off any more incursions and after an hour, longbow teams or PPD send out squads to take down the intruders (running street battles FTW!).
Picture hoards of Tuatha pouring out of the train station in Steel canyon and making a beeline straight for the magical store or better yet, the CoT sacred site in the top right corner
To make things more exciting, there are no announcements saying that its happening but security drones do shut down a few minutes before hand.
Once over, and the drones power up again, the hacker can send a taunting message hinting at what he wants (and not just the right to take his shirt off at the beach and have those not blinded by his pasty whiteness call out sightings of an uncooked chicken!).